Cutting and creating flowers for a ball

I don’t do much event floristry these days, but sometimes there is a good reason to say yes to a request, and the reason usually means the people asking are very nice and it is my pleasure to help them with their project.

This is just such an occasion: a school ball with a limited budget for which I agreed to make the flowers because I like the school, I like the events manager (my neighbour and friend,) and because, since the budget is so tight, I can do exactly what I like in colour and shape and design.

So, I cut a thousand stems for this gig on Thursday this week, spent Friday arranging them into various styles of vessels, and late on Saturday afternoon, as the heat of the afternoon began to dissipate, and the sun finally slipped behind the buildings, so turning off the boil in the marquee, I installed them, finishing just before the first guests began to arrive. Now, today, Sunday morning I headed back to the venue to collect all, stuffing it all into the van and hauling it back to Common Farm where the flowers were thrown unceremoniously onto the compost heap, the buckets emptied, the vases all put in the dishwasher, and the studio swept and tidied for another week of high season flower farming to make its demands again tomorrow.

The thorniest questions regarding my job are always about pricing. And so I thought I’d break down the pricing of a gig like this for a farmer florist like me so that you too, if you’re interested in growing flowers for sale, or adding value to your product by offering floristry services as well, can see how my thought processes work, and apply them or evolve them to suit your own purpose. And if you’ve recently been astonished by the price quoted you by a farmer florist who you would like to commission to make flowers for your event, then the list of what went into the work (three whole days including planning, emailing, invoicing, admin, reassuring client) in time and stem count might tell you that actually the price is pretty reasonable considering.

So: pricing…